Affection as a Professional Knowledge in German as a Foreign Language Teachers’ Initial Education in Rio de Janeiro

The initial education of Foreign Language (FL) teachers in Brazil is influenced by many language politics instruments and various policies such as public policies for the primary and secondary education, university curricula, national curricular parameters (such as the Brazilian national curricular parameters—Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais—PCN) and textbooks themselves. These instruments exert decisive influence on the teaching profession, determining what to teach and how to teach. However, the effectiveness of language teaching stems not only from hard skills but also from intersubjectivity. In previous research on teacher professionalization, students pointed to affectivity as a key element in the professionalization process, in addition to theoretical and didactic contributions. This chapter, therefore, aims to identify the relevance of affectivity in the initial training of teachers of German as a FL (GFL). For this purpose, we draw on a theoretical framework of teachers’ knowledge, that includes reflection, attitudes, and socio-affective and practical knowledge, and discuss the importance of ‘affectivity in teachers’ practice. In the last section of this chapter, we revisit a survey conducted with future GFL teachers in 2019 in which students report affection as one of the key elements of learning and teaching a FL.